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3 (Tamil) - Movie Review


"Suicide is not a solution to any problem" is the noble thought behind the Dhanush, Shruti Hassan starrer - 3. I would have been grateful to the director, Aishwarya R Dhanush, had it remained a thought and did not materialize as a real world movie! I would recommend this movie only if you have lost everything in life; then again, I might say "Get a life dude!" 

The movie starts in the present time where Dhanush is no more and Shruti is a grieving widow. But who is Dhanush? Who is Shruti? Who are everyone crying for the loss of this guy? All these questions are answered through an interlude flashback. The flashback does start with a huge promise and the stars breeze their way through the first half. Shiva Karthikeyan has done a great cameo that will make Santhanam a little jittery! A worthy competitor for Santhanam is on the anvil. We will have to wait and watch how Shiva carries his career forward. Dhanush and Aishwarya have done very well in their innocent teen roles in the flashback and the irrational puppy love that they share has been very well made. The sequence where Aishwarya goes to Tirupathi and the separation makes the couple go mad might strike a chord with the youngsters. No one can ask Aishwarya what was different in her movie. She has special aces up her sleeve just for this question.  One of the aces is the marriage happening in a pub! I mean, why? This is when the director decides to give a break. A hope blooms that things will continue and I won't feel so bad for spending 250 bucks on the ticket. The director has other plans for minions like me. I went out and come back with loads of popcorn, eagerly waiting for the second half to begin. 

I am now eager to see the super excellent romantic sequences. Again, here is the second ace, the mother of all aces. The second half is not about their life at all! It is about how Dhanush died. Now, you will think Dhansuh's death must be somehow connected to their life, the way they lived it or something. Minions!! You are all wrong! In the second half they took me through a meaningless roller coaster ride of Dhanush and Shruti crying at various pitches and locations. Then just like how a mokkai speaker hogs all the air time and then says, "Without much further ado..." the director also finishes the movie abruptly. Maybe she thought that was her way of causing a lump in our throats. Caused a lump she did, but not because of her movie but because I  realized I have been tricked!

Debut Musician Anirudh shows a lot of promise in songs like Kannazhaga and throughout the first half with his BGM. However, in the second half he is overshadowed by Shruti with her crying BGM and he takes a back seat. At least after seeing the "Why This Kolaveri Di" song, I hope people will allow it to RIP and I strongly recommend they do the same with any thought that arises to watch this movie. This movie is best described by any 1990s Indian cricket team chasing a target. They start well but then lost not just steam but also their sanity mid-way through and then laugh derisively at the audiences who have wasted their time and money. End of it all I have only two questions for the director – “Why the name 3?” and “Why (this kolaveri di)?” 

In the end, when the message of the movie is flashed across the screen I wondered if it is the director asking me not to commit suicide after watching the movie. As a good friend, I advise you to not even think about watching this movie. But if get a free ticket because you bought two juices at the karumbu juice kadai and happen to go for the movie then get out after interval. Save yourself!
3, Aishwarya R Dhanush, Anirudh,
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Mother Pious Lady - Book Review


There are big books of small things, small books of big things and big book of big things and small books of small things. If I were to classify this book into one of these four then I would probably say it is a big book of small things. But these small things are those that make up the social fabric of India and in turn what India is all about. As I had earlier indicated in my review of A Rainbow in the Night, I like authors who drive their point by first showing out the entire landscape and then focusing on their object/element of choice. Mr. Desai also uses such a technique when he goes back to the dark old days to the good old days and then explains how our current thinking is either markedly different from or heavily influenzed by those days. However, because it is a big book of small things, the focus is kind of blurred and the sharpness is quite not what you get out of a research paper. This is good as well as bad depending on what you expected out of the book. For me, it was good as I got a wholesome picture and I could mould each chapter or experience to the management scenarios I encounter, to explain why customers/co-workers behave/work in a certain way.

The book follows a time-linear path as it starts from past, then moves on to the present and finishes off with future. The good thing is that the author has provided majority of pages for the past, then to present and a few pages for the future. This shows the sound research and subject knowledge of the author. He analyzes how the past experiences have affected the present. He also had the maturity to not to blabber some nonsensical prediction for our future. Rather he explains how we can shape our future and urges us to use the right lens so that we are not misled by all the brouhaha around brand India. Another good news is that the book is divided into very small chapters, each is (kind of) an experience that an average Indian citizen would have undergone. So these chapters can be read in any order or some of them can even be skipped if you are not interested. The effect it has on the overall reading experience depends on how many chapters you skipped rather than which chapters you skipped as these are experiences which tie to each other anyway. But I would recommend not to skip the initial chapters as this evoked strong sense of nostalgia in me. It made me grin from ear to ear and sometimes even crack up laughing thinking about what I had done in my childhood. Any guy/gal born in 1980s should try not to skip the early chapters.

The chapters about the Bajaj scooters and stainless steel utensils made me grin from ear to ear. While the chapters about the hill stations and vacations made me frown up on him for trivializing such an important experience in my life. But then again he shifted gears and had me in splits and nodding in smug appreciation when he trashes the concept of ‘arranged marriages’. I shall give you just one experience which he had explained with which I quite couldn’t agree. In one of the chapters he explained the emergence of small town girls and he argues that the mask or whatever it is that they make out of their duppattas as a sign of progress or sign of increasing self confidence. This explanation looked contrived in my opinion. The book in essence took me on a roller coaster in terms of my reactions to the chapters.

An interesting observation I made while reading this book is that how close is our thinking to China's when it comes to patriotism and portraying our country to outside (read: Western) world. In smoke and mirrors, Pallavi Iyer mentions that Chinese citizens hated bad news and avoided it at all cost. In fact, they had built a false Utopia around them and chose to ignore some of the pressing problems they have in their country. The media regulation is only part of that plan as media houses play an important role in upkeeping the utopian image. It is strikingly similar to our behavior wherein we ignore the presence of slums and feel indignant when a westerner points it out! Two things emerge -
  1. The author further strengthens my belief in Ubuntu, philosophy that All Towns are one. We, like the Chinese, want only the good India and good part to be known to us and the world.
  2. More importantly, he opens our eyes and hence urges us to shut up, accept it, acknowledge it and change it. Rather than ignoring it or whining about it and searching for the emergent India at the top while the emerging India is at the middle
Tackling a big problem, on which everyone has an opinion about and most have an emotional attachment to, even in a big book is tricky. There will be chapters which you have exactly the opposite view than the one that the author has taken. You might opine that the author has made a mountain out of a mole hill in certain other chapters. But the author has presented his view and smartly put into a form where you have the choice to skip the chapter if you want. So I don't really see this as a disadvantage but only a minor hiccup. From my personal experience, I found the boring chapters were in the middle and I could not help but yawn and switch off my reading lights. This was one of the most time consuming books for me. It took me almost three months to finish this book. Mumbai's traffic and commute did not help much either. Another important factor is that you run out of nostalgic moments somewhere in the middle of the book and the boring present starts to take over. These were the pages I found the most difficult to coast through because I am confused where this country is presently headed to while the author definitively tries to pave a path. At least he is clear about what he is talking.

All in all, it’s a great book especially if you are a sociology student or if you are a traveler in India who wants to understand why we are like this only or even if you are a resident Indian who cannot understand your neighbor who is a filter coffee sipping, Hindu newspaper reading, cricket fanatic who can argue about any topic under the sun. It’s a great read, go get it!
Book Touch, Flipkart, India,
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